Good Times
by MeteorLeopard
Summary: Some people can be plain annoying, stubborn, dim, cynical, difficult, headache-provoking and pains-in-the-unmentionable... yet at the same time ridiculously endearing.
1. Hat

**Title: Hat**

**Author: MeteorLeopard (HoneyBadger)**

**This is a new idea that I'm trying out. You'll see what I'm getting at once more chapters are up ;) **

**I can't guarantee how often this will be updated. Normally I'll end up writing these as the fancy strikes me.**

**xxx**

"Come on already Toushirou! Get your rear in gear and motor outside!"

An irritated growl sounded from behind the closed door that Karin was currently standing in front of. "No. I'm not going anywhere."

"For goodness sake Toushirou! Nobody cares what your stupid hair looks like!"

"I care what my stupid hair looks like! I get enough stares already and I don't feel like getting even more!"

Karin let out an exasperated sigh. "It's your damn fault that you bleached it!"

"I didn't bleach my hair!"

Karin smirked, knowing full well that she'd set him off with that comment. "Uh-huh. Sure. Whatever. Now hurry up, we're already late."

"I don't care if you're late."

"We. _We're_ late, Toushirou. Matsumoto has already booked your ticket and she's not going to let you get out of this one. So hurry up."

"Karin, I am not going out there looking like this and that is final." Karin could imagine him on the other side of that door, standing with his arms defiantly crossed and his icy eyes hard and irritated.

She tried to collect her thoughts. It wasn't really an option to physically drag Toushirou out of there. For one, he was much stronger than her and for another she really didn't want to have to resort to that because then he'd be even more irritable than now. "I don't really get what the big deal is," she tried reasoning. "You always get weird stares because of your hair. Why throw the big tantrum _now_ just as we are about to do something fun?"

Grumbling sounded from the other side of the door and Karin frowned. "Pardon? Didn't catch that," she said with an obvious edge to her voice.

"I said that Matsumoto's idea of fun and mine are completely opposite."

Karin shook her head. "You're impossible. Just get out of my room so that we can go meet Matsumoto at the movies already. She's gonna get impatient."

"She's the whole reason I'm in this mess!" Karin heard him explode from the other side of the door.

Karin was hurriedly losing her temper. "Look. I don't know what your deal is. It's been three hours since you shut yourself up in _my_ bedroom and you've refused to come out even for a minute! Heck, you even shut the curtains and barred the windows! What's your problem?"

"It doesn't matter!"

"Of course it matters! Because of your issues we're going to miss the movie and if you're not out of that room in ten seconds I am going to break this door down!"

"I don't have issues! And you wouldn't dare."

"Ten. Nine."

"Karin."

"Eight."

"This is your bedroom door. _Your_ door," Toushirou emphasized, hoping to get a reaction from the black-haired Kurosaki.

"Seven."

"It'll be expensive to replace."

"Six."

"For goodness sake! I'm not going and that's it! I am not coming out of this room!"

"Five."

"You're not seriously gonna-"

"Four."

"Karin?"

"Three."

"Hey, are you listening to me?"

"Two."

"Hey!"

"One."

"KARIN!"

Karin let loose a furious roundhouse kick, spinning on her foot for extra force and landing her heel in exactly the right spot, sending the door flying off its hinges and into her room.

She stalked into the room, only to catch the last glimpse of her duvet cover being yanked upwards. Giving a last sigh, Karin marched over to her bed and sat down on it, reaching up towards where Toushirou's hands were still visible holding onto the edge of the duvet currently hiding him from her view.

"Toushirou, you're acting more childish right now than I've ever seen you behave. Put my blanket down."

For a moment he didn't move but then he lowered it. Karin's eyes immediately took in his averted gaze and turned head before going over to his hair, the source of the problem. Immediately she saw it. Her eyes widened just a bit and Toushirou grumbled under his breath.

"There. You happy now?" he sounded bitter whilst saying that but Karin wasn't quite listening. She simply reached up a hand and softly raked three of her fingers through a few stray strands.

The boy watched her for a few apprehensive moments from the corner of his eye. Karin continued to look him over critically, her dark eyes eerily silent. Toushirou gulped, waiting tensely for the verdict.

"It suits you."

He nearly fell from the bed. As it was, he was barely managing not to splutter. "What?"

Karin let her eyes meet his. "I said it suits you. Matsumoto really knows how to cut hair."

Toushirou stared at her for a second before hurriedly pulling back and clamping both of his hands over his head. "Are you kidding me? It's hideous! Why she had to try and imitate the style I had back in Rukongai I don't know."

Karin tilted her head. "Your hair looked like this back in Rukongai? And take your hands away, I can't see."

"Yeah." Reluctantly Toushirou lowered his hands.

Karin gave a slight smile upon seeing his new haircut again. It really did suit him. "Alright then, let's go." Karin grabbed his wrist and proceeded to drag him to his feet and a whole two steps forward before Toushirou dug his heels into the floor and came to a stop.

"No. I told you Karin, I'm not going."

Again, Karin was driven to near breaking point with her temper. "Okay, you have an issue with your hair? Fine, then put a damn cap on but you'd better do it fast because I am not missing that movie!"

"A…cap?"

"Yes, a cap, genius, a cap! Please tell me you own a cap!"

"Of course I don't own a cap. Why on earth would I need one?" Toushirou asked somewhat bemused, leaving Karin longing to wring his neck.

"Oh for goodness-. Just come on." She proceeded to drag him upstairs and through the door to her brother's room, not even pausing to check if he was home since she knew he'd be at the movies by now with everyone else. Karin wrenched his closet open and began looking about inside. "No… no… not here." She frowned as she withdrew her head. "Damn it, Ichi-nii doesn't have caps either."

But just then, something caught her eye and she reached out to remove it from the dark corner that it had been stuffed into. A green and white striped bucket hat with a clean cut in it on the edge. A devious grin formed on her face.

Toushirou saw it and backed up two steps. "No."

"What?" Karin asked innocently. "It's a hat, right? So it'll hide your new hair style."

"That, Karin, is Urahara's old bucket-hat that your brother had to knock off his head during his training. I am not wearing it. Find another fool to do it."

Karin wasn't deterred however and her ominous smile never dimmed. "Well, Toushirou, I'm afraid that I don't have any more time to find another fool because the movie is due to start in a few minutes and, as I am sure I have mentioned before, I am not going to miss it. Now, Toushirou, I am giving you a choice: go to the movies right now with your hair as it is or wearing Urahara's old hat. Make your pick."

Toushirou stared in horror at the girl before him. She was being deadly serious, no pun intended. Which was the worse of two evils? The hat previously worn by that sneaky old shopkeeper who could have installed a brainwashing machine in it for all he knew or his newly acquired haircut from Matsumoto that, strangely enough, Karin actually seemed to like…

"Well?"

He hesitated for a second. "I choose…"

**xxx**

**Ahahaa, Imma leave it there. You guys can decide for yourselves what he picked. The next theme will be totally separate and NOT follow up from this one. Just a heads up. **

**Now, review! I'm not kidding. Do it. **

…**Please. **


	2. Itchy

**Title: Itchy**

**Author: MeteorLeopard (HoneyBadger)**

**Rightee-o! Second chapter up! Hope you guys like it.**

**xxx**

It seemed pointless, Toushirou thought, to struggle with a useless piece of machinery for hours and gain nothing but some cut up hands and grease smears on your face for it.

Apparently Karin thoughts so too as she straightened up from her crouched position on the grass beside the large and rusting contraption. She glared at it as she stood.

And then gave it a good kick.

"I don't think that's going to help."

"Shut up!" Karin roared at him, her face clearly showing her displeasure. Belatedly, Toushirou realized that perhaps that hadn't been the best thing to say. Karin clearly wasn't in the mood for snarky comments.

She huffed and scowled at the machine before turning her head towards the back door of her house. "Oi! Dad! Get out here and fix this stupid thing!"

From deep within the house, a crash of china was heard. "Coming my dear Karin-dearest!" The eldest male of the Kurosaki family pranced into sight, his voice high-pitched and ridiculous. He spun to a stop beside his irritated daughter. "I have dropped everything just to rush to your aid, darling!"

Toushirou guessed that what he 'had dropped' had been the plates he was supposed to be setting on the table for lunch. Yuzu would be out for blood later.

"Fix it." Karin demanded, her dark eyes glittering dangerously.

Isshin merely tilted his head at the large piece of machinery before skipping back into the house. "Hitsugaya will fix it for you!" Toushirou did a double take. "Show me what a grand son in-law you will make to my dearest darling daughter! I am counting on you, Hitsugaya!"

Toushirou was left spluttering and staring at the door. "Ignore him, he's an idiot." Karin handed him a long metal object. He stared at it.

"Well, fix it." Karin demanded.

He turned to look at the large, and now somewhat daunting, piece of equipment. It was big, bulky, had a box attached to the back and rolled along on four little plastic wheels. What had Karin called it earlier? A prawn-lover?

He eyed it again suspiciously. No, that name made no sense, no matter how he looked at it. Beside him, he could feel Karin's expectant stare. Well, no matter what it was called. Karin expected him to be able to fix this… thing, and was waiting or him to do so. If he backed out now not only would he look stupid but he'd be letting her down too. That and she'd just get even more irritated than she already was.

So against his better judgment, which was telling him to hand back the tool she'd earlier told him was named a 'spanner', he headed towards the… thing. Not quite sure of what he was doing, he experimentally tried to pull on the one handle.

Nothing happened.

He tried the other one, still with no success. A long, red cable ran from the contraption and through a window into the house. He fingered the cord.

"Toushirou, do you have any idea what you're doing?"

He gritted his teeth. "Of course I do."

"Oh?" Her voice was laced with skepticism.

"Yes." He ground out.

She didn't reply but he was all too aware of the fact that her eyes were boring into him. It was making him nervous.

Perhaps… if he adjusted the box?

Beside him Karin sighed. "Never mind Toush. I'll do it myself."

Now it was his turn to be irritated. "No."

Karin glared at him. "You obviously have no idea what you're doing! Get out of the way so that I can fix it."

"I can do this! Back off!"

Karin's eyes sparked. "If I leave you to do this we could be here till midnight!" Toushirou took note of the fact that it was only noon now. "Give me back the spanner so that I can fix this thing and get it over with!"

Toushirou's temper flared even further and, instinctively, his hand that was still holding onto the device, gripped it tighter. He had not expected the thing to spring to life with a deafening and horrifying roar and lurch forward, pulling him along for a few steps before he had the wits to release his hold on the handle. From behind him, he could hear Karin laughing furiously.

"Something funny, Kurosaki?" He asked, his voice low.

Karin calmed her laughter. She knew when he used her surname that he was irritated beyond belief and that aggravating him further would accomplish nothing. So she rearranged her features into a smirk. "Wouldn't have thought you'd be scared of the lawnmower, Toush."

Lawnmower? So that's what the contraption was called. He scowled. "I got it working, didn't I?"

Karin sighed slightly, crossing her arms. "Yeah, well done on that."

That made him feel somewhat better. Karin strolled over to him, checking at her feet as she walked. He glanced down too and noticed that where the lawnmower had been the grass had been completely chopped off with the remains lying haphazardly over the top of the old grass. Karin stubbed her shoe on the ground and her shoe caught some on it again.

A smirk spread over her face. "Hey, Toush?"

"Yes?"

"Think fast!" And a clump of mown grass came hurling at him, hitting him smack in the face.

As it slid down onto his shirt, he stared disbelievingly at the grinning girl before him. She was grinning. How annoying, and infuriating.

Impulsively he flicked some grass at her, just to wipe that smirk off her face. It worked, for a moment, before Karin reached up with a hand to brush the remaining blades of grass from her eyebrows and, with a warning glinting in her eyes, kicked a huge chunk of grass at him.

He sidestepped but still got some of the dampened grass onto his shirt. As he turned again he only just caught a glimpse of her reaching down and dumping a large handful right over his head.

He gritted his teeth and glared at Karin, who was now starting to step away. Not thinking about it much, he took a step forward to follow after her and hopefully snag some more grass to push into her face, or maybe down her back so that it got stuck in her shirt, when his shoe got caught in the electrical lead cable that he'd forgotten about and was still plugged in somewhere inside the house.

Not having much time to react, Toushirou could only just throw his arms out in time to catch himself-and he would have- had it not been for the fact that Karin was still in the way and he knocked her off balance. Flailing her arms slightly for something to hold on to, she grabbed onto his collar and brought him crashing down along with her. He landed face-first in the mown grass and vaguely thought that, despite his nose hurting like heck, it actually smelled pretty nice.

Laughter was coming from beside him and Toushirou shifted his head to the side to look at the girl beside him. She was lying flat on her back, her arms outstretched in the loose grass above her head and her eyes closed as she smiled. She looked like she was actually having fun, lying in the mown grass.

Toushirou shook his head slightly, thinking her antics to be childish. But then again, he was enjoying himself too.

He rolled onto his back too, closing his eyes. The mown grass really did smell wonderful.

For a while, neither of them moved and just lay there, content for a while. But then, Toushirou began to notice that a bit of the grass had managed to get under his shirt and his bare neck and arms currently lying against the lawn, were starting to grow irritated. He shifted slightly but found that this only aggravated the skin there.

"Karin."

"Yeah?"

Toushirou shifted again and grimaced. "This is uncomfortable."

A snort of laughter, or mockery, came from her and he lifted himself up on his elbows to glare at her better. She had grass tangled in her black hair and the contrast between the green and black suited her. Her eyes were glinting with life and amusement as she sat up too, her arms propped over her pulled up knees.

She rolled her neck. "Yeah." She turned her eyes on him instead now. "Let's ditch this rolling rust-bucket and get some of the ice-cream from the freezer. Yuzu bought some earlier. Besides," she grinned at him. "I've had enough of this thing."

**xxx**

Inside, hidden behind a curtain, Isshin smiled whilst peeking out of the window. His daughter was a feisty one but she could be kind when she wanted to be. He twirled the lawnmower's lead that Toushirou had tripped over in his hand, grinning at it. His poor daughter had been struggling to fix the lawnmower the whole time and he'd made sure that it had been unplugged after she'd put it in herself.

It had been fun to watch Toushirou's surprised face as he plugged it back in just in time to have it jump to life again.

Isshin chuckled to himself as he returned to the kitchen to sweep up the pieces of crockery from the floor. Those two would be so itchy in a bit.

**xxx**

**Done! Tell me what you think, kay? **

**Oh, and for those of you who are wondering when the heck I'm going to be updating my other Hitsukarin 'Secrets Twists and Chaos' story, don't worry. I have that chapter sent in for beta-ing so it should be up fairy soon. NO, I have NOT abandoned it! Not gonna happen. Not with that story. **

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


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